The Middle East unfortunately has limited Internet connectivity to the rest of the world, and that connectivity was slowed dramatically this weekend after the main SeaMeWe-4 cable suffered a 'shunt fault' and came into contact with sea water somewhere in the Mediterranean.
The 20,000km SeaMeWe-4 cable provides much of the connectivity between Europe and Egypt, and its disruption made news from Egpyt to the Gulf states to Pakistan and beyond. Service still appears operational in the eastern segment of the cable, which runs all the way to Singapore. Apart from SeaMeWe-4 many states only have access to the much slower and older SeaMeWe-3 and FLAG Europe-Asia cables.
A repair ship is already on-site and should have the cable fixed in the next day or two.
Fortunately, as the Telegeography chart below shows, this dependence on SeaMeWe-4 will come to an end this year. The consultancy says that "five new cables are scheduled to enter service between Europe and Egypt in 2010. The first two, Telecom Egypt’s TE North cable and the IMEWE consortium cable, will enter service in May. Orascom’s MENA cable, the Europe India Gateway consortium cable, and Reliance’s FLAG Hawk cable are all expected to follow before year-end 2010." Capacity will skyrocket, and the new cable will also bring helpful redundancy to the region.
Multiple cable cuts back in 2008 also crippled the region
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